Belief
by Kamitra
Summary: Belief makes wishes come true. But what starts belief? A bunch of ficlets dealing with the world of xxxHolic.
1. Gods and Humans

A/N: I finally read some stuff for this fandom and was basically wowed over. Still, I'll continue to try to write, as whatever my work may be. This may just be a bunch of ficlets, since I can't seem to accomplish long stories. I'll try to write whatever strikes my mind as interesting.

It'll be amazing if any of this actually becomes true for the series.

**Belief: What The Eyes Never See  
**

One day, he dreamed that he had met her.

"Why do you do so many things for everyone and everything, even if you're just a human?" she demanded. "Humans don't see the value in so many things, and treat other lousy things so highly, like their culture."

He had smiled. "It's true that I don't see things as valuable at first, but other people--excuse me, other things--see them as valuable, and that makes it worth treating."

"Even if you can't see why?"

"Well, I'm not perfect, but I can try to. Perhaps because we all value different things that many things exist in this world as 'consequence'."

She sighed. "Humans are so selfish, and yet they do so much for others without ever receiving proper payment in return... not like us gods. But humans are more like the One above us, in that way. Us being unable to pay the One back, that is."

"The One? Is that like the Matrix or something?"

"The what?"

"Nevermind." He coughed. "So maybe more like something like..."

"Yes. Humankind is the One's children, after all. For all that they know it."

"What about the gods?"

"Us? We're 'created', not 'born'. It's not the same. At least we're not ungrateful."

He thought aloud. "Well, I'm an orphan, and if I were to see my parents again, I wouldn't know what they would look like. I can't even remember their faces anymore... but I can hear their memory sometimes. I wish I could see more of them, but..."

"But you don't even remember your parents' names."

"How--? Nevermind. No, I don't really. I don't even know if I'll recognize them if I see them, but I want to see them someday."

"So that's the feelings of the 'lost children'?"

"I don't know if everyone is like me, but..."

"Well, we'll just take it as such.  
And perhaps, one day, they will recognize each other when they meet.  
The same holds true for you and your parents, Watanuki Kimihiro."


	2. The Future Past

A/N: I suppose it's systematic by now that I write two chapters for everything with chapters in it... if only as a blessing to keep the thing going...

Each ficlet is a simple supposition on its own. This particular one is just a possibility I cooked up that I hadn't seen anyone mention yet. (Maybe because I'm the only one crazy enough to think up such a thing.) As I usually write, I don't mind if someone takes this idea and makes it into something better. In fact, that would be awesome.

**Belief: What Time Does Not Know  
**

When he awoke, he went to school. It was the same as the school before, and the same students.

Except his friends were not there.

His friend from childhood was there, though... like he had never left.

It was nice to have a friend around, but he missed Himawari-chan and Doumeki. He was so saddened not to see them that he didn't mind admitting that he missed the latter.

Yuuko-san was not there either, on his way home.

At home, was a nanny that he never did dream about (she claimed herself to be his nanny), her employer, and her co-worker.

He was apparently the only orphan, and stayed in one of the apartment rooms, courtesy of (self-proclaimed) nanny and apartment manager.

Well, he wasn't really an orphan.

His parents were alive, but they weren't old enough yet.

He couldn't explain it even if he wanted to. He didn't get it himself -- he just knew _when_ he was.

This was his past... but even that, as they said, was impossible.

Even worse, he was older now, having lived his time out with Yuuko-san.

Coming home, he cooked for his (self-proclaimed) nanny's (self-proclaimed) family, and said hello to the being pretending to be a stuffed animal in his (blah blah) nanny's room.

He hummed to himself, thinking of what what Doumeki would like to eat, and what Himawari-chan would ask him to sing.

The twin daughters of the apartment manager (for some reason they reminded him of Maru and Maro, even though they were completely different) sang along with him.

When dinner came around, his (self-proclaimed) nanny brought (apparently) another orphan home.

The orphan was a girl... and she was his age. He couldn't keep his jaw from dropping.

"She asked me to heal her troubles and take her to with her..."

"Kohane-chan?!"

"How do you do, Watanuki Kimihiro-kun. This is the first time we've met... face-to-face."

"H-h-h... I didn't know you were my age!"

"I wasn't, when we met. In fact, the next time I see you, we won't be."

"You mean..?"

"It will be fine."

His nanny looked back and forth between her beautiful stranger and him. "Wow!"

Her stuffed animal whispered behind him, "'Wow'? That's all you have to say? More like what the heck is going on?!"

Kohane _looked_ at the stuffed animal. She didn't glare -- _looked_. It shut up for the rest of the night.

The apartment manager -- Hibiya-san, introduced herself and daughters and they began dinner.

Later that night they looked out over the balcony.

"Do you know where Doumeki and Himawari-chan are?"

She shook her head.

"Really..."

"They are probably together, somewhere, because Shizuka-kun is the only one who can be around her safely."

He almost gritted his teeth at the thought, but then smiled. "I guess that makes it easier to find them..."

"They will come to you."She continued. "You are the only one that _wanted_ to be around her, even if it was unsafe.

Just as being around me was unsafe for you, thanks to my mother."

He was always amazed that she could call that woman her mother without any malice whatsoever.

"The only ones that would have protected you were the kitsunes."

Speaking of which... "I wonder what happened to everything else, like Mugetsu..."

"Probably with your parents. You haven't met them yet." It wasn't a question.

"No, they're still in middle school, I believe."

"...I miss Yuuko-san. I can barely believe that I actually miss her pissing me off, even."

Kohane blinked, and he turned, surprised to see her surprised at anything.

"What?"

"You didn't meet her?"

"She's alive?!"

"No, she's not. But her 'daughter' exists in this world."

"D-d-d-daughter?!" Would this world never cease to try to give him heartattacks?

"Of a type. She's not a magician, but a guardian."

"Guardian?"

Kohane nodded. "Not human, in other words."

He sweatdropped, thinking of another 'child' of Yuuko-san's going "puu."

"I guess you've gotten around since I last saw you."

"...Business trips."

"You're still doing that?"

"I can't stop, even if I stopped receiving money for it. I get food and board instead. And care."

"I guess..."

She smiled slightly. "And I was called in to make sure that nothing in your school was haunting anything, but another party took care of it already, and so they changed my contract to simply stay here for several years."

His eyes grew wide. "Years?" They?

She smiled a little more. This was probably the largest smile he had ever seen her wear. "Yes. Until the day you are born and leave here."

_Then I will meet you again, once again, for a final time._

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Notes: It's kind of a lousy place to put an ending, but I'd end up not finding another good place to put a break in...

I'm sure you all played a guessing game, so if you wanted to see the answers, here they are:

Turn back if you don't want to read them!

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1. I won't answer everything. Sorry! But I will some things, such as who-is-who mentioned.

2. Self-proclaimed nanny is Hanato Kobato. Stuffed animal is Ioryogi. Hibiya, Chise, and Chiho are canon to that universe.

3. Ichihara Yuuko's so-called daughter (technically not her daughter -- Clow's daughter, actually) is being referred to is Akizuki Nakuru. It's only by sheer luck that this mentioning came out -- I wouldn't have noticed this if not for the fact I was looking for someone to look like Yuuko... and I just realized that their personalities are similar.

4. It's not mentioned (I think, I'm still writing the chapter), but in one flashback, Watanuki is wearing ...something that looks like the uniform mentioned in Gouhou Drug? (Yes, it's a question. Kinda.)


	3. Transitioning

A/N: More from the previous chapter. I'd say I'm not really good at this, but I just wanted to add on the story.

**Belief: Transition to the Future  
**

"Mom..."

His voice held wonder as he sounded it out again. "You're my... mother..."

"Yes. I'm so sorry we left you..."

"But Yuuko-san explained it to me. That you didn't leave -- I left." His head still hurt, and his vision was dazed. The faces staring at him were mixed with joy, tears, and the other creatures in the room watched with as little concern as they could muster, obviously worn out.

"You... I... I look like my grandmother." The words came, stumbling out. He didn't even know where they came from, but somehow, he _knew_ that they were true.

His mother held his hand, still crying. "Yes, you look like your father's mother. Not really much anything like us, but..."

His father came to the rescue here. "We're very proud of you, and we always loved you."

He was tired, and it showed in his smile. "I know."

--

When he awoke, his room was already filled with sunlight. It was a western style house and the place was quite luxurious -- it seemed as if the house was rather old. The furnishings were colorful, but it seemed paradoxically difficult to get enough lighting in a place like this, unless...

...Oh. Magic.

It seemed like a frivolous use of magic, really. Yuuko-san rarely used any -- she always relied on constructs or other things to help her through mundane things. Which was strange, now that he thought about it... She really wasn't the mundane type...

Oh, the light. He forgot about that.

And thats when he noticed that he wasn't alone. He supposed he was too used to it.

"They said that I would be the person you're the most comfortable talking to for now, considering that you've come a long way and time."

Kimihiro felt his eyes widen as he took in the face of the person that looked like so many _people_ at once...

"Y-you must be..."

"I was, once. I am no longer. I shall introduce myself as Hiiragizawa Eriol."

"..." He put his head back on the pillow. "Are you anything like Yuuko-san?"

"Funny that you should ask about the one person that I have no blood relation to."

"Well," he continued, pulling up a chair to sit on it. "I believe I have a lot to catch you up to speed on..."

--

"They didn't have a choice, of course, and as their only option, they sent you as a child over to Yuuko. There she took you under her wing until you were the physical age of your dream self. Unfortunately, they couldn't bring you immediately back due to the disruption caused by Sakura-hime, and you were instead put under stasis as a spirit, under the watch of a spirit mediu--"

"Kohane-chan."

"Yes. Due to your close contact to it all, you were the only one that aged during the time distortion. Most of us have no recollection that such a thing even occurred. Only your parents and I can feel what went on. We couldn't warp time around you, so the best we could do was bring you back and manifest your body to match your mental age."

"I'm... twenty-five. The same age..."

"As your parents."

"Himawari-chan and Doumeki?"

"That is the names of your guardians? Well, that means that you will find them again in the near future."

"Guardians?" He couldn't imagine Himawari-chan counting as a guardian... Not that it was her fault that she caused so much havoc...

"They helped guard you from the distortions in time, as well as kept you anchored within that reality. None of us could predict who they would be -- we can only get a sense for personality. Thankfully, that is enough to keep your parents optimistic while they waited."

"They wait... but, no time has passed...?" He felt like his eyes were going to spin at any moment.

"There were many years that passed before the distortion reset itself. I am less aware of what occurred than your mother, but I do know that it happened."

"Just as the fortune teller had said, they were watching over you the entire time."

"But didn't... they die...?"

"They did, and they didn't. Right after the accident, your mother sent you to change everything."

--

"So... neither of your parents are alive."

They simply smiled at him. Or rather she did and he just glared. "Don't look so down. It'll ruin your face."

"Wha--"

"What he means to say," she said, cutting in, "Is that it's a part of our past that came before this. From what Eriol-san said, we had a choice before we got to dream with you. I'm just glad that we got that chance."

At his clueless look, she continued to smile and open up her hand to reveal something yellow.

"Tanpopo!"

"And I've got something that wants to see you too."

"ACK! MUGETSU, I NEED TO BREATH--acch..."

--

His jaw dropped. And he couldn't pick it back up.

"Since when is Tanpopo a phoenix-like thing!?"

He had half-expected a chorus to repeat him. Eriol-san just chuckled and Himawari-chan looked ecstatic. Doumeki looked his normal -- unimpressed.

His mother turned to him with Tanpopo-now-yellow-phoneix on her shoulder. It hopped over to Himawari, who made faces at it like it was a newborn. "You don't like phoenixes?"

"That's not the point!"

"But I thought she would grow up to be a beautiful creature, and she did..."

"Birds don't grow up instantly like that!"

His mother had taken one look at the cute little chick on Himawari-chan's shoulder and somehow _levitated it_ to her and it began to transform. After the initial burst of light... well, it was still glowing. He could take a guess that not everyone would be able to see it, but it didn't strike up on his sensors as magical so much as spiritual. Which just made it worse.

"But she can fly around now and... and..."

She looked like she was going to cry. His father, for what it's worth, just seemed to be at a loss as to how to talk his way between them.

"Did I do something wrong?"

He sighed. "Mom, I love you, but... this is just ridiculous. Haven't you ever heard of discretion?"

"Of what?"

He hung his head.

To everyone's surprise, it was Doumeki that began to laugh first.

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Notes: More guessing game stuff!

Turn back if you don't want to read them!

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1. I'm still not saying who his parents are.

2. I wanted to have him meet Kohane, who should be in her early 30's by now or so. Seriously, this is supposed to be the major pairing at work for this story -- not that you can tell or anything...

3. I wanted to spill everything, but there's only so much a person can handle at once, even if you got parents like his. He still hasn't met Nakuru.

4. Watanuki goes to college with Himawari and Doumeki.

5. Tanpopo's new change should affect how Himawari deals with other people.

6. It's not apparent, but Watanuki's abilities here are a little more... enhanced, now that it's not being used to help protect his existence... but they're more passive than those of his parents'.


End file.
